

Running with Scissors
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
3.5
(5.4K)
Augusten Burroughs
The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir from Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors, now a Major Motion Picture!Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs....Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Mental Health
Memoir
AD
More Details:
Author
Augusten Burroughs
Pages
288
Publisher
St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published Date
2010-04-01
ISBN
1429902523 9781429902526
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"I love Augusten's work. "
T
TheGingerGirl455
"Amazing. Must have a very dark sense of humor. Loves it. "
N B
Nacadie Belliveau
"Mine too! I highly recommend Augusten Burroughs’ “Dry”"
I K
Irma Kunder
"Dysfunctional family and mental illness is always the best way to start a book. I’m so happy I read this book. It is both funny, sad, disgusting and sometimes disturbing. I find it so weird that people are so quick to defend their family’s honor as if their family members were not crazy and have a history of being a bit on the morally wrong side."
F H
Finn Hughes
"Definitely a whirlwind life he lived as a young boy! What a host of characters that swirled his life. I listened to the audiobook and had many smh moments! Lot of laughs but also squeamish at the inappropriate behavior bw the adolescent and grownup. Overall a good read!"
R H
Rhonda Holman
"A great queer meditation on coming of age and dysfunctional youth. Relatable, funny and tragic. "
J R
Joey Reynoso
"i read the first two hundred pages in a day. after a three month reading slump. enough said. "
M E
Madeleine Enos
"Give it a chance if the writing style throws you off in the beginning. You'll appreciate the style later. "
J S
Jordan Sealock
"I found this book neither funny or shocking. Instead it seemed the author was trying too hard. If this was his true life, I feel really sorry for him. Honestly, though, child sexual abuse is never funny."
R T
Rebekah Travis
"it was twisted, horrifying, and impossible to keep reading. but it made you think about everything in a way nothing else ever has, it was the most disgustingly gorgeous thing i’ve ever read "
M L
Morgan Levasseur